End of the trip - Reflections

Back Home Again - WOW - What a Trip!

Hi everyone - I must spend just a minute on reflections, then on to fun pictures and commentary. I would never have imagined an opportunity like I just went thru. Malaysia has been wonderful. Even losing my wallet and all the headaches that came with that don't cloud my positive feelings about my trip. My sister Karen suggested I write a blog, and that was so unlike something I'd do that I didn't give it much consideration. She told me it was easy, so I looked into it, and I am so thrilled by how it turned out. I've gotten many great comments from people who check regularly to see what new pictures/text have been posted. Thank you all for caring, this has been a lot of fun.

The other part of the experience that is hard to put into concise words (I don't do concise very well anyway) is the effect the trip has had on me. It hasn't quite turned me into a Democrat, but has really been a grand education into how the rest of the world sees life and world events and the interelation between everyone, both on a local and world scale. We really see an Americanized view of life from America, and since America is what America is, in today's world, I think that's mostly OK.

The education part for me was really just understanding better how everyone else sees things. More of a European view, more of an Asian view for sure. I really didn't understand Muslims, at all, and Malaysia probably doesn't show how all Muslims everywhere are. Malaysia is pretty 'westernized', so the Malaysian Muslim culture is likely more moderate than you see in some less 'westernized' locations. On the whole, you just don't anticipate how everyday normal all people will be everywhere. They are.

The uniqueness (and the blending) of each culture that makes up Malaysia is amazing. The advertising, the music, the clothing, the food, the humor, the concerns, the etiquette, the left-side driving, the food stalls, the subway/train/monorail system, the heat and rain, the shoppng malls, the crowds of people everywhere, the monkeys, the temples and mosques, the taxi's ...... everything is just fabulous to have been able to experience.

OK - I thought I was done, but 1 more thing. If you ever get the chance, don't turn down the opportunity to do something like this. It was scary getting going, scary arriving in the foreign land. It was really an emotional wringer when my wallet got stolen. My point is that all of that passes and the wonderful memories will last and last. Embrace it if you ever get the chance.

Bye now - I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.



Well - it's the end of the road for my Malaysian adventure. I'm back home in Kansas City. This will be the last blog entry. I was gone so long (8 1/2 weeks), yet it went so quickly. The Cerner work part of the trip (the whole reason for going in the 1st place) went well, was confusing, but came around as time went by.

This is on I-29, near the KC airport.





I really noticed the 'International Departures' sign at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. I knew that once I left I'd likly never return, and I really grew to love KL, the people, the cultures, the food, all that. While we could go back for vacation sometime (Tracy loved it too), there's so many places in the world we haven't been. I just can't see us back in Malaysia, but check back in 20 years and we'll see.

A gift shop in the KL airport had lots of lovely pendants and boxes, all made in Malaysia. They were practically jewel-encrusted, with a gold-ish mother-of-pearl-ish inside.





When you're not sleeping or eating on the long flight back, you have a pretty good video system to play with. Games, TV, movies, news are all pretty good. I was in an exit row, so I had this flip-up style screen. Most folks had screens in the seatback of the person in front of them.




Just off the coast, by Los Angeles, I saw some islands, my 1st view of the USA in 8 weeks, unless you count the US Embassy in KL, which is technically US soil, or so I understand.

One last shot of cute Malaysian women.








The long sequence of flights takes about 26 hours (KL to KC).


This guy was on a wall by the pool at my hotel. Kinda cool.




These guys were playing at the Hilton poolside lounge every night. My hotel and the Hilton shared a large pooldeck area and I could sign for stuff at any Hilton restaurant (or massage, or whatever). The guy on drums is Malaysian and the guy on guitar is Marco, from Cuba. Marco was very entertaining. Tracy and I both really enjoyed the times we sat and talked with him, about Cuba, and Malaysia and travelling around Asia performing.






This is Sa'adah. She is the shining light of the Cerner Malaysia office. Sa'adah is an Integration Architect, and a good one at that. She is really funny.



There are somewhere between 1 and 10 people in the Cerner KL office every day. It just depends on who's in KL, who has meetings at the office, who is working on what. This picture is of Gerard, Sa'adah and Halim. Halim is an Engagement Leader (project lead for non-Cerner-folk). Gerard is a Technical Engagement Leader, like me. He was hired by Cerner in March and was in KC for Cerner training when I left to go to Malaysia on April 7th. The head guy in Cerner Malaysia is Satriya, who was out ill this day.





A sign at the golf course I played at (with 3 Malaysia IBM guys). I've seen alligator signs in the USA, but never monkey signs.








One of the best reasons to come back home to KC. This is Audrey, our 5 year old grand-daughter.

Treetops, Tracy and Paul head home, car show

Remember to click on any picture you'd like to see bigger.





Typical afternoon in Kuala Lumpur (as seen from the KL Tower)











Just a stroll in the park.











Airport checkin is at the train station right by our hotel, very handy








One of the many prototype cars at the Auto Show





Hello everyone. It is Wednesday of my last week, here in Kuala Lumpur. I am having very mixed emotions about finishing my visit here. I'm very eager to get home and back to normal. Having Tracy and Paul here was great and helped my home-sickness alot. I very much am anxious to see everyone else back home. So much has happened in the 2 months I've been gone. Carrie's engaged, Deena's moving, Audrey is 2 months older, Hershey accomplished multiple jail-breaks. On the other hand, I know I will likely never see KL again. I suppose it is possible, but really, not very likely. I like it here. The people, culture, food, everything is pretty nice, and so very different from home. I haven't had to live here like ordinary people, what with my hotel home and expenses-paid lifestyle. Actual living here would not be so fun.

Before Tracy and Paul left, we did some fun things. On Saturday, we went to FRIM (Forest Research Institute, Malaysia - http://www.frim.gov.my/), a large tract of forest land near KL, that is involved in many foresting projects. They have several locations around the country, including the KL location. We went for their Canopy Walk (http://www.frim.gov.my/facilities_canopy.htm). About a 1 KM walk from their main office, up narrow steep trails, we got to beginning of the Canopy Walk.

A bit hard to describe (the pictures help), the walk is up in the trees, about 20 to 30 meters up in places. The whole thing is maybe 200 meters long. It has thin metal cables strung between the trees, with a rope lattice work support system attached to the metal cables. Metal ladder sections are laying across the bottom of the rope lattice, with wooden planks layed on top of the ladder sections. The walkway is maybe a foot wide for your feet, and plenty wide at the top, almost too wide in a couple of places. There is netting all over the rope lattice as well.

The visual effect, particularly for those of us with height issues, is impressive. Besides the straight-down hold-on-tight view, the view out over the trees is wonderful. They built the walkway in a place that offers a full wonderful view of Kuala Lumpur, some 30 KM away. Very cool.




After the walk (we survived, but it was scary) Paul found a waterfall to play in. There were other people there already in the water, having a great time. We eventually found our way out of the park and made our way back to town.





Later that day Tracy and I went up in the KL tower, the 4 tallest tower in the world (CN Tower in Toronto is the tallest, by a another 100 meters or so). The observation deck gave a great view of the city and surrounding countryside.






Tracy's last evening here we had dinner out by the pool, with the 2-piece Cuban ensemble playing light music, all very nice. Tracy had the hotel bring some goodies to our room, for my birthday (50, can you believe it, funny I still feel like 25 or 30, but that's what everyone says). She's too good to me.




Sunday early afternoon Tracy and Paul left and I was left here all sad and lonely. ............................. OK - I'll be alright, but it is quiet here now.
















After they left I went to one of the local convention centers for the Kuala Lumpur International Auto Show.

It was the normal big auto show, but the fun part was the different cars that we'll never see in the USA. Skoda's, and Peugot's, and Citreon's and on and on.





Of course every car there had 1 or more pretty girls standing nearby (definitely more than you'd see in the USA). They had a contest going on for people to vote on their favorite Auto Show Ambassador (pretty girl). Just SMS your vote to some number. They had TV monitors set up around the facility showing the current voting totals. The place was packed full of people, mostly guys (kinda like the computer fair I went to here). Each girl posing by a car had at least 10 guys with cameras snapping pictures as she posed. You'd think these guys had never seen girls before. What a bunch of losers.

Oh well - the cars and trucks were fun, there were some prototypes that were awesome. That was the best part, seeing how they still evolve the design.






Volvo has a new dashboard design that is kinda fun (look at the lower center dashboard area in the picture) and the big trucks were fun to look at also.






Quiet week at work this week. Had a meeting yesterday on the 60th floor of one of the Twin Towers. That was fun. Playing golf tomorrow (Thursday), I think, then Friday in the office and Saturday heading back to the States. I'm gonna miss this place.
Talk to you all soon.
bye






These Lucky Strikes made me think about my Dad.










When our plane was unloading from the trip back from Bangkok, they opened up the back door and unloaded from both ends.











At a mosque in the FRIM forest compound, only proper ladies are welcome.










Lobby of the KL Tower.









'Nappy Changing' should be done by a woman, I guess.








GROOVY!







Thought I'd just finish up with some random shots of misc. cars from the auto show.

Bangkok Weekend

Click on this for more of the gorgeous detail in this shot. Don't forget to look at the temple detail also.








Poor thing - I think he'll be OK. I'm the one on the left.




Hey everybody - we're getting down towards the end of my adventure (and now OUR adventure), so this was a good booster shot of touristy stuff. Paul went to Hong Kong on Friday to visit Grace, Mackensie's ex-roomie from SLU. He got back to KL on Monday, says he had a great time, but not too many details.




Tracy and I flew up to Bangkok on Saturday (2 hour flight). We got back to KL Tuesday evening.




We got our first taste of how things are done in Bangkok, right at the airport.




A tour booth guy worked on us till we bought a 1/2 day city tour for both of us for TB1000 (38 Thai Baht or so = $1). That was about $27 total. Not bad, and the tour was good. Couple of Buddhist temples, couple of Jewelry stores, a big tailor shop, a teak wood shop, and a elephant/crocodile farm/zoo/show.


The tour booth guy also told us the best deal on a cab was the taxi queue outside, not any of the booths inside, and we shouldn't pay over TB300 on the meter for the ride. He even wrote it down for us, and walked out and kinda set it up for us. So, including the TB50 airport fee the trip cost TB350, and they somehow made it a flat rate, not metered, based on the note the guy wrote for us. Turns out the metered rate is only based on distance, and the return fare from our hotel was TB200, so we paid about a 50% upcharge by letting the guy set it up for us.

We had other occurrences of people trying to get us to go where they wanted, or to shop in certain areas, or to buy jewelry for investment, etc. Very friendly, but manipulative place.



Our hotel, The Grande Ville, was right by Chinatown, walking distance to lots of shopping and dining. This was a major league Chinatown (there's a Chinatown franchise in every large city). Kuala Lumpur has a nice little Chinatown, but it's not at all the same thing.



OK - on the touristy stuff -





We saw tons of Buddhist temples, there are something like 400+ temples in Bangkok. There were too many 'major' temples (Wat's) to see in a couple of days. I saw several and Tracy saw a couple more than that.







We did a cool canal tour (Venice of the east) on a long skinny boat called a long-pole boat. It's got seats for a dozen or so people (we just rented our own, just for us). It is powered by a car engine (yep) mounted up high on the back, steered by a long pole that sticks out the back with a prop on the end. Pretty interesting.




There are taxi's and Tuk-Tuk's everywhere. Tuk-Tuk's are 3-wheeled open air motocycle powered taxi's, no meter. You tell them where you're going, they tell you the fare, you either get in or walk away. They have a bad habit of stopping at shops that they want you to go look thru before they finish taking you where you want to go. You get to enjoy every sound and smell from a Tuk-Tuk. The sides of the roof come down just low enough you can't see much though.

I bought some handmade slacks (2) made of cashmere/wool and a couple of Egyptian cotton shirts at a place we stopped at (cause our tourguide thought we needed to stop there) on the way to the Elephant/Crocodile farm/zoo/show. The clothes got back to me the next afternoon and they fit perfect. Tracy bought some souveniers and scarfs and skirts for others. She bought some really pretty Garnet jewlery for herself.

Thai Baht is about 38 Baht to the dollar. Baht is so worthless that you throw it around without worrying too much about it. Tip your waiter TB100? Feels impressive, but it's less than $3. It's all relative though, to them 1 Baht is a buck. Doesn't buy much but it's still the basic unit. Tipping is just not done over here like it is in the states.



The zoo/show was really good. Dozens of elephants, some just sitting around to have pictures taken (this one sat there with its front legs crossed, so you could sit on it's leg for a picture. They had a big arena for a structured show about the history of elephants in Thailand, fake battles on elephant-back, all that.



Then we saw a croc show. I about couldn't watch. These guys were teasing these crocs (well fed beforehand we were told) to make em mad, then sticking their arms down their throats. This one guy stuck his head inside the croc's mouth. Our guide told us that they have lots of 'accidents' at the show, but it's not regulated, so it stays open. Amazing. nothing bad happened, but it just about made you sick to watch.



We spent a short time at the Bangkok 'Weekend Market'. The tour book says there are over 8,000 stalls and I believe it. With aisles (big and small) packed with people, stalls with people in them, eating places, etc, there had to be 50k to 100k people packed into that one market. The tour book said something about it being a sauna. This was true.



We kinda finished up our visit with a 'Caberet' show after a nice (not wonderful) Brazillian (Rodizio style) restaurant. Basically you have salads and side dishes on a buffet bar, and gaucho's bring swords with meat to the table and slice you off a small serving if you want some. Each time they come by their offering is something different. We had pork, pork sausage, chicken wings, lamb, beef, salmon, pinapple and could have had ostrich, maybe more, I don't remember.


The 'Caberet' was a Lady-Boy show (drag show). It was ok. The singing was 100% lipsync (probably a good idea). The costumes were spectacular, with lots of costume changes. They had one comic person who was pretty entertaining, eyeing guys in the audience, flirting, etc, while being bad at the stage stuff. It was amazing how girl-like these guys looked. Some of them couldn't pass for a girl no matter what, but most of them were pretty convincing.

Tracy and Paul went to see 'The Da Vinci Code'. Tracy said there was lots of spoken French in the move and the Malaysian subtitles just didn't help very much. I met up with them after that for supper and bowling. We were very bad, but it was fun.

This weekend, before they depart for home, we are going to a forest research facility to learn and experience all about forests. The highlight is a 'canopy walk' 30 meters up in treetops. The walkway is constructed of ropes. My general high level of respect for tall places makes this sound a bit scary. I think I'll be doing it anyway. I'll let you know how it went.

Talk to ya soon - bye for now.




Lychee fruit has a small white tasty center.










We don't know the name, but it a segmented multipiece white flesh fruit.









If there is a fire, run for the door, duh!





Wat Traimit - Temple of the Golden Buddha. 5 1/2 ton solid gold Buddha. This bad boy was once encrusted with a concrete, and no one knew it was really gold. Some janitor probably bumped into it, lost his job when he broke it, then they noticed that underneath the sacred outer layer (concrete) was gold, solid gold, tons of it. Pretty cool.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Thailand/Central_Eastern_Thailand/Bangkok-1445238/Things_To_Do-Bangkok-Wat_Traimit_Temple_of_the_Golden_Buddha-BR-1.html

Soccer playing elephants. Beautiful animals. Fast, graceful, all that.









The faked up a nice battle-on-elephant sequence for us.








Chinatown Poultry





This was interesting. Right next to our hotel was this canal. There were shacks built over the canal, metal sheeting roofs, with occasional glimpses of the canal showing thru . Also in that 'poverty' image, there were, in the middle of the metal sheeting roofs, air conditioner units mounted on top of the squatter roofs.






Tracy, has overcome her fear of shopping, casually dropping a few thousand Baht on jewelry (remember, 38 baht to the dollar).







Our tour boat









On the canal, hourses built right out over the water.










Some houses nicer than others.









Queen for a day?









Wat Arun, big temple site, right on the river. We had our boat driver pull up and let us off at the temple. Big place, lots of spires, which all have tons of little statues all over the sides. Very cool.

http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/attractions/watarun.php

Zoom in for a little detail

From across the river.